As the Winds Change
by Renee Lenore
Summary: A series of events, countless moments. The winds of change are upon them. He will learn what it means to lead and love; she will learn to love again. AU after chapter 680
1. The Beginning

**New story idea I'm working with, inspired by Sasuke's goal of being a Hokage in the manga. I've been going overt this idea for a year now and just recently started to write it out. I'm sure other authors have written about this already, but this is my take on it.**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

This had to be one of the worst weeks of Sakura's life—not the absolute worst, but it was pretty close.

Sakura stood in the Hokage's office, looking over the mission scroll for a third time, occasionally glancing up Tsunade, just to make sure this wasn't a joke. But each time she caught a glance at her master's face, it grew more serious. There was no hint of amusement or happiness.

'_This can't be real . . .'_

"You're sending me to Orochimaru's village?" she asked finally, incredulously.

"_Otogakure_, Sakura," Tsunade corrected her. Sakura narrowed her eyes at the comment, biting her tongue; they were the enemy, she would refer to them however she felt inclined. "And don't give me that look; you know perfectly well that the village as a whole is no longer an enemy force—"

"Don't give me that!" Sakura shouted, amazed that Tsunade could be so calm about this entire situation. "Just because Orochimaru is dead doesn't mean that his shinobi aren't still going to attack our own at any chance they have," she seethed, remembering the trouble they had caused so many years ago.

"The attitudes of a village usually are affected by the beliefs and actions of the current leader," the Hokage said slowly. "Their Otokage has allied his village with our own. As a new ally to Konohagakure, it is our duty to assist an ally whenever help is called for."

"And what if I don't want to?" Sakura asked slowly, choosing her words carefully. "What if I tell you that this entire mission makes me uncomfortable, goes against my best wishes, and that I refuse?"

Tsunade's eyes narrowed considerably. "Then you go against the oath you took at the Academy Graduation ceremony, you go against a political alliance, you go against this village, and you are going against my direct order," she answered between her teeth. Tsunade knew then that she hit a low point. Sakura was a completely loyal person to the core of her being; to be told that she was ultimately betraying so many aspects of her Shinobi contract would tear her to pieces.

Sakura glared up at the woman she had once admired, someone she would rely on with her whole heart. "Is this because of the council?" she asked slowly, carefully watching Tsunade's face in case the woman lied to her. "Is it because of—"

"No," Tsunade said quickly, her eyes glancing away. "This mission that you are assigned has nothing to do with that." There was a slight pause. '_Liar,_' ran across Sakura's mind. "The council is still very upset with you, the family of the child will not drop the charges, but this mission has nothing to do with that." Tsunade stood from her chair and turned to observe the village through the large windows. "Don't think of this as some form of punishment for your actions, Sakura. Consider this mission a blessing in disguise." The woman looked back at her former pupil. "Get away from the village for a while, step back from this whole mess. Do some good—"

"I saved that kid's life—how is that not good?" Sakura demanded, keeping her voice as calm as possible.

Tsunade did not comment on the outburst and continue as if uninterrupted. "Be away long enough for this whole thing to blow over. Maybe putting your efforts into Otogakure will do you some good."

Sakura glanced away, the pit in her stomach falling. She couldn't deny that everything that had happened this past week had taken a serous toll on her, but she would never admit it out loud. But the Hokage was right: everything had gotten out of hand so quickly; if Sakura stayed in the village, around her hospital where it all started, things might actually get worse. Perhaps Tsunade was right . . .

"When do I leave?"

"Immediately."

* * *

The journey to the land of Otogakure was long and emotionally trying for Sakura. Every step she took towards the newly-formed country was another step away from Konoha, her _home_. It had only been a year ago when the dynamics between all the great nations essentially changed and the countries rearranged themselves. After the Great Ninja War, borderlines were redrawn after the fall of different deities; countries underwent changes in structure and power. For the most part, the Fire Country, Earth Country, and Lightening Country remain unchanged as far as politics were concerned. Water country gained control over the surrounding islands, Winded gained control over Ame and Ishi, but it was Oto that had changed the most. With the fall of Orochimaru's reign, the village had essentially fallen apart. However, as the war caused this same destruction to other countries and villages, all of the smaller countries that had surrounded it were without a leader.

Sakura could remember everyone's mixed reactions when Oto essentially took control of the entire surrounding land between Fire, Earth, and Lightening countries. It had taken a few long months for Naruto to convince everybody that the new and official Kage of Otogakure was nothing like his former master. The immediate alliance between Konoha and Oto was a testament to that—though it did take a lot of convincing for Tsunade to make the official call to form the alliance. Because they all knew Sasuke wasn't going to be the one to initiate the contract.

It was nearing the end of the second day of Sakura's journey when the rain began, a constant downpour that lasted into the third day of her travels. The weather ironically reflected her inner turmoil with the entire situation. She relayed in her mind was the mission scroll had stated, remembering that it was tucked securely in her pack.

Sasuke had requested that a set of trained medics be sent to Oto to assist with building up a secure and efficient medical unit within his village. Sakura could understand the request; first off, Konoha was the only true ally of Oto—they were still working to form other bonds, and secure the newer ones into alliances that Sasuke could fully rely on. Not only that, but when Sasuke took on the task of become the new Kage of Oto, he went out to physically rebuild the entire village in a location that was geographically smarter, considering the fact that the new country his village resided in was much larger than the former Rice Country. Prior to this, the Sound Village had essentially just been made up of a bunch of underground tunnels that were set in place by Orochimaru to hide his experiments. Apparently Sasuke was not in favor of those tunnels. He had positioned the new village to be as close to center in the new country as possible, which resembled some of the other countries. Not only that, but if Sakura remembered correctly, the Sound Shinobi were not known for their medical skills (aside from Kabuto, but Sakura didn't like to dwell her thoughts on him too much).

Sakura wondered what his reaction would be upon realizing that Tsunade only sent him one medic, and that the one medic she sent was his former teammate. If Sakura were honest with herself, she would admit that she was nervous to see his reaction, anxious to see him, scarred that he would send her away, that she had missed him despite everything that happened between them. But she was very rarely honest with herself these days, so none of these thoughts lingered for long in her conscious mind.

By the late afternoon Sakura arrived upon the gates of the Sound Village, clutching her travel cloak tighter around her to protect herself from the onslaught of the unrelenting rain. Two guards stood at the gates, watching her warily as she passed. She wondered vaguely how they would have reacted if they had seen her headband and the Leaf insignia upon it; Sakura did not regret having tucked it away hours ago.

Sakura trudged through the streets, looking for some indication of where one would find the Otokage. She could vaguely remember Naruto having described to her the layout of the visit, having memorized it from the several visits it took to it for Tsunade. She had never really paid attention to what the blonde male had told her, for the mention of Sasuke and his village had always made her throat constrict painfully. If she remembered correctly, the tower would be settled against the side of a large cliff that was located on the north side of the village. The concept reminded Sakura vaguely of how Konoha was set up. Walking through the streets, Sakura noticed how dull and lifeless everything seemed; shops were closed, windows shut tightly, no one milling about. _'Though that might be due to the weather,_' she thought dimly. Perhaps things would appear differently under different circumstances.

Of course, the fact that she did not want to be here probably had an affect on how she looked at the growing village.

As Sakura neared the north side of the village she became aware of a large tower-like building that was connected to two smaller square ones at its side. Despite the rain—which was getting significantly worse—Sakura remained outside, staring up at the building that loomed over her. With its dark exterior it seemed to blend in with the dark weather, making everything seem even more lifeless. In the back of her mind, Sakura wondered if she could really last a whole year in a place like this. She felt as if she would whither away in such a village.

'_Hopefully it only takes a year…'_

A clash of thunder sounded overhead, causing Sakura to jump slightly and remember where she was and her purpose. Taking a deep breath she forced her feet to move forward towards the large oak double doors. Right as she was about to reach for the handle a large sword came sailing out of nowhere. Sakura jumped back, holding her hood closer to her face. _'Son of a bitch, he could have taken my hand off!'_ she thought, already irritated. This was not how she wanted to start her time here. Sakura looked over at whoever was holding the sword, taking in his appearance. It didn't take even a second for her to recognize him as Suigetsu, one of the members of Taka.

"Hey there," he drawled, "what's a guy like you doing trying to get in to the Otokage's tower, eh?" He made a motion to grab at her, to which she brought up her arm and blocked. Because of this, her hood blew off her head, revealing her pink hair. Suigetsu paused and took her in. "So you're a woman," he mumbled. "Sakura, right?"

The young woman narrowed her eyes. She didn't think that he would necessarily remember her, they had only met on a couple occasions, and those times hadn't even been official. Sakura pushed her now-drenched hair out of her eyes. "I'm here on business from the Leaf Village," she said simply. "That is all you need to know."

Suigetsu smirked, looking her over. "Well, aren't you bold?" he pondered while lifting the sword from the entryway. He opened the door, bowing; even his body language screamed 'sarcasm'. "After you, ma'am." Sakura gave him her best stink eye before she passed him. His attitude reminded her a bit of Kiba; at least he didn't smell like wet dog.

Upon entering, a sign indicated different departments in the complex building and where they would be located. Checking the sign, Sakura then proceeded to weave her way through a few hallways and up a large staircase, then down another hallway. It wasn't long until she reached another set of oak doors. She gathered whatever courage she had left and knocked, hoping her knocking didn't sound timid.

"Come in," came a voice—_his_ voice.

It took Sakura a second to register that he had granted her permission to enter his office. His voice had been calm and slow, no longer containing the malice and hatred that she had unknowingly grown accustomed to whenever she had run into him.

'_Well, here goes the next year of my life,_' she thought, half miserable and half . . . something she couldn't describe.

Sakura grabbed a hold of the doors, squared her shoulder, and opened the door.

Her eyes were set straight ahead, so the first thing they happened to focus on was the man behind a large desk, writing on a scroll. He didn't look up at her, focused on his work before him. Sakura took in his appearance: he wore a dark shirt, his hair was cleaner than she remembered, his brow furrowed in concentration, a slight scowl on his face. "What do you want?" he questioned, barely paying attention to whoever had just walked in.

"You should be a little more courteous to you guests, you know," she said before thinking. Immediately she remembered her place: she was a medic, and his was a Kage. She needed to be more respectful.

Sasuke froze the instant she opened her mouth, staring at the parchment in front of him. '_That voice . . '_ Slowly he raised his eyes to the woman before him, not truly believing that she was actually there. But as his head came up he took in her appearance. Her outfit was dreadful: she was completely drenched from the rain, hair plastered to her face, clothes soaked through. But when his eyes reached her face, he noticed how her face was set into a firm expression, eyes filled with determination and boldness.

"What are you doing here?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow, momentarily forgetting that she needed to treat him with respect. "You sent a notice to my village asking for medical experts." Sasuke leaned back in his chair, eyeing her with a calculating gaze. "I'm the medical expert."

"I asked for a team of experts," he said smoothly.

Sakura sighed, shoving her hair out of her face again. "Yes, I'm aware. However, the Leaf Village is short on trained medical staff at the moment, so Lady Hokage sent me," she explained. She bowed before him, trying to be respectful—for he was a Kage now, she needed to remember. "I am the top medical ninja, I will not disapp—"

"I remember, Sakura." He watched as she paused, glancing up at him from behind her hair. "I remember fighting alongside you in the war, what you did. You healed a majority of the Shinobi Alliance," he recalled. "You are a capable medical ninja."

Sakura straightened, trying to hold in her shock; having him verbally recognize her abilities was not something she was used to. She cleared her throat, composing herself once more. "What do you wish for me to do while I am here, Lord Otokage?" she asked.

While Sasuke's face didn't show it, he was taken aback by how Sakura addressed him. Of course, he was use to this from his own Shinobi, expected it. But to hear it from someone like Sakura . . . it felt odd, as if they truly were too far apart now. They were on completely different levels.

Sasuke stood, putting away the documents he was reviewing. They were already overdue, another few hours wouldn't make much of a difference. He quickly grabbed a cloak that was hanging up and led her out of the room. "Where are we going?" she asked as he led her down the hallway.

"I'm going to show you where you will be staying," he answered shortly.

As they made their way through the streets, Sakura took in more of the village. Parts of it still looked as if the village was still under construction; there were buildings that were only half built, some that looked broken and abandoned. If Sakura didn't know better, she wouldn't have been able to tell if this was a village being built or one being left behind. Sakura gripped her cloak closer to her as the winds picked up again, howling between the buildings. "Is the weather always this bad?" she wondered out loud.

"No," came a curt reply. Sakura made a mental note of that.

"So what is going on here that you requested assistance from the Leaf?" she asked, turning her gaze to his figure, which was covered by his cloak.

"We don't have a medical staff," he started off. "Orochimaru never bothered training people to know medical ninjutsu, so most of the shinobi here don't know any of the basics. They need to know. That will be the first part of your job. The second is to establish a hospital that can run efficiently," he said, glancing up at a tall building they were passing. Sakura looked up as well, taking note that this shabby building _was_ the hospital. "What we have isn't good enough to the sick or injured to reside in."

"I see . . ." she mumbled. The building wasn't nearly as large as the Konoha Hospital, but its size was wasn't pitiful. However, judging by what Sakura could see through the onslaught of rain and wind, the building didn't look stable enough to house the sick and injured.

They approached a set of apartments; Sakura appreciated that the apartment complex was close to the hospital. He led her to the first door on the second floor, handing her a key. "I was expecting more medical ninja, so you won't have any neighbors until someone else moves in later on," he said, sounding disinterested.

Sakura took the key and opened the door to her temporary home. It was an open concept with the living room and kitchen not having dividing walls. She could see that there was a bathroom down a hallway, which probably stood across from the bedroom. Sakura took off her cloak and set down her traveling pack, slowly walking around the apartment. There was some furniture with cheap linens on the bed, dishes and silverware in the kitchen, and a couple towels in the bathroom. Sakura started making a long mental list of everything she would need to buy the next day; she didn't bring too much with her, there hadn't been enough time to pack everything she'd wanted to.

"We will need to discuss more tomorrow," was all he said before walking out, closing the door firmly behind him.

Sakura waited a few seconds before walking to the kitchen and collapsing into a chair, running her hands through her hair. She had no idea what to make of the mid of emotions running through her. On one hand, she did not want to be here. This entire place was too foreign to her, unwelcoming, and too far from her home. But on the other hand, there was Sasuke. And Sakura hated this, how despite everything that had transpired between them, she still got flutters in her chest at seeing him.

This was going to be hard.

* * *

**R&amp;R**


	2. The Hospital

The next morning Sakura woke up cold—the thin blankets that were in the apartment didn't provide much protection against the chill of the night. She stood and stretched, glancing out the window to assess the weather. The sky was dark, but it wasn't raining and the clouds were moving quickly, indicating that whatever storm they held would not break above the village. She sighed to herself; back home, the view out her bedroom window was of a bustling street, always active and crowded with happy people. Here, she had the pleasure of looking out at a forest line

It was less than an hour by the time Sakura was out on the streets of Otogakure, observing the shops around her. Now that the rain had let up, storefronts were opening up and people were starting to get along with their day. She received a few odd looks, but for the most part the villagers ignored Sakura, minding their own business. Sakura spent the first couple hours buying the basic essentials as far as clothes. The shops didn't seem to have much variety, which made Sakura resort to simple tops of different styles, general pants and shorts, among other things. She was slightly bummed that she wouldn't find anything with the Haruno symbol; perhaps she would send a request to have one of her friends from home bring some of her stuff for her. She was still slightly bitter at being rushed out of the village so quickly; she wasn't able to bring a majority of her belongings.

The next couple hours were spent getting food and general supplies for the apartment. Venturing through the supermarket, Sakura felt a strange sense of loneliness settle in; she was so used to seeing people she knew when walking around the Leaf village, going through this new village where no one knew her was drastically different. _'I guess this is something I'll have to get used to,_' she thought solemnly.

It wasn't long before she returned to the apartment complex, several bags in her arms. She spent the better part of the morning trying to make the place feel more like home. She eventually got all of her clothes stashed away, new bed linens in the washer, food stored in the kitchen, a rug for the living room, and a scented candle was lit. Sakura had become so absorbed in her tasks that she didn't hear the first set of knocks on her door, so when she noticed that someone was suddenly inviting themselves into her apartment she sprang into full ninja mode and charged at the intruder, kunai in hand. However, instead of having the stranger pinned against the doorframe she found herself on the other side of the room, pinned forward against the wall, hands twisted behind her back, a body holding her in place.

"Why did you try attacking me?"

Sakura's eyes widened and she started straining against the hold on her, but the hands holding her were unrelenting.

"Lord Otokage?"

"Answer me, Sakura," he said darkly.

Sakura was about to snap back at him, but then bit her tongue. Technically, she _did_ attack a kage—but he came into her apartment without her permission! When she told him this, Sasuke sighed and stepped away, releasing her from the hold he'd had her in. Sakura turned to face him, rubbing her wrists.

"I knocked and you didn't answer," he replied, a slight tinge of irritation laced with his words.

Sakura huffed, averting her gaze away from his. "Well, you still came in without my permission," she mumbled, walking away to get a drink for herself. "Want anything?" she asked, gesturing to the fridge. Sasuke shook his head once, declining. Sakura shrugged, popping open a bottle of water before settling against the counter. "So what do you need?"

"What are your plans?" he asked. After receiving a quizzical look, Sasuke almost wanted to sigh again. Honestly, he had hoped that she would be on top of things, considering everything that needed to get done in such a short amount of time. Instead of explaining all of this, he settled for giving her a half-hearted glare. He wasn't all that surprised to receive one back; he vaguely recalled Naruto telling him about Sakura's backbone and killer attitude. "The medical staff, the hospital. Sakura, the entire reason you are here," he said, sounding slightly exasperated.

Of course Sakura hadn't forgotten the reason she was here, it never left her mind. She just hadn't found the time yet to really formulate how she was going to accomplish everything for this village. She had only been here for less than a day, she didn't know anything about the state the village was in. "I can't really make any major plans yet, Lord Otokage," she said slowly, choosing her words carefully. "I have yet to observe your shinobi. I would want to first see who would be interested in becoming a medical ninja, and then assess their abilities to check that they are even capable of it. Not everyone has what it takes," she explained. "You need to be able to retain a vast amount of knowledge of the human body, understand its functions, be quick and efficient with decision-making, have exceptional chakra control . . ." she listed off, thinking about everything Tsunade put her through their own training. "I would need to set up a training program that would allow for several people to learn at once while simultaneously making sure each individual is fully grasping the concepts," the woman added. "Do you have any medical texts in the village?" she asked suddenly, several thoughts running through her mind.

"Aside from reports from Orochimaru's experiments, no," Sasuke replied. "And those are not available to the public. Only select few can view them under strict guidelines."

Sakura cursed silently in her mind, taking another sip of her water. "I wonder if Tsunade can send some over," she pondered out loud. "What is the hospital like?" she asked.

Sasuke shrugged nonchalantly, as if the question wasn't all that important. "I want to see it," Sakura continued. "If you are going to have an efficient medical unit in this village, the hospital needs to be up to date and run properly. I haven't been inside, so I can't decide much on that, either," she added.

Sasuke reached inside his jacket and pulled out a set of folded papers. He unfolded them, opening them across her kitchen table; they were blueprints of the hospital. Sakura sat down and started sifting through the papers; Sasuke took to leaning against the wall, watching. From what Sakura could see, the hospital had six floors; the main floor appeared to hold a lobby, waiting area, and general patient rooms. As Sakura went through the rest of the blueprints, she was bothered to notice that nothing was really labeled. There was no way of telling what different areas were dedicated to, so she wondered how the hospital was being run. What floor held the pediatrics, what rooms were dedicated to the Intensive Care Unit, which rooms were used for emergency victims? She could ask Sasuke for this information, but Sakura just had a gut feeling that he probably didn't know; he didn't strike her as the person to spend much time observing the hospital.

With this thought in her mind, Sakura collected the blueprints and stuffed them into her bag, grabbed a pencil and a notebook from her bedroom. Once she had collected what she thought would be needed, Sakura went to put on her shoes and jacket.

She glanced back into the kitchen where Sasuke was still standing, eyeing her warily. "Well, don't just sit there, let's go," she commanded. She was out the door before Sasuke could even formulate a response.

Honestly, this woman was going to be a serious struggle for the next twelve months.

* * *

Sakura marched through the hospital doors, Sasuke at her heels, and was a little shocked by the sight that met her. The lobby wasn't much of a lobby at all. There was a small table set up where a full desk should have been, one young woman sitting there with a meek look about her. Some of the lights flickered above, giving the room a bit of an unwelcoming atmosphere. There were some chairs set up along one of the walls, a large filing cabinet sitting against the opposite wall. On either side of the lobby were two hallways, which were closed off with double doors. The tiled floor was covered in dirt, making Sakura cringe; she hoped the rest of the building wasn't this shabby or dirty.

Upon seeing the pair walk into the hospital, the small woman behind the table stood quickly and bowed deeply, a blush on her face. "Lord Otokage, welcome!" she said quickly, almost stuttering through her words. The woman glanced up, looked at Sakura, and glanced back down almost immediately. "Hello, ma'am."

Sakura stepped forward, holding out her hand. "Hello, my name is Sakura Haruno," she introduced herself, gesturing for the woman to straighten up. As the worker did so, she shyly took Sakura's hand and shook it politely.

Sasuke then stepped forward, as well. "Naomi, Sakura is here to lead the medical unit of the village," he said briefly. "Show her around the hospital, fill her in on what has been going on," he ordered.

"Yes, Lord Otokage!"

Sasuke turned to Sakura. "I have paperwork to fill out. We will discuss this later," he said before walking back outside.

Sakura stood there for a moment, feeling slightly awkward and out of place. Naomi was the first to break the silence, clearing her throat lightly. "You're from the Leaf Village, yes?" she asked slowly. Sakura nodded once, tensing up. She was surprised when Naomi smiled, a slight blush tingeing her cheeks as she looked up at Sakura; Naomi was shorter than she was. "I've heard about you! You trained under Lady Tsunade," she recalled.

This time it was Sakura's turn to feel embarrassed. "Yeah, she was my teacher for about three years until I surpassed her," the pink-haired kunoichi explained. Naomi continued to beam up at her, seeming in awe. Sakura cleared her throat, glancing around the lobby. "So, the hospital . . ." was how she started, but after seeing Naomi's face fall slightly, she knew that the rest of her sentence was unnecessary. "Can you show me around? I need to see how the building is running—that's why I'm here."

Naomi nodded quickly then looked around, biting her lip. "There isn't anyone else to watch the lobby . . ." came a hesitant reply. She quickly made hand seals and produced a basic clone. The clone walked over to the table where Naomi had been, sat down and started sifting through papers that were scattered there. Naomi smiled at Sakura. "Okay, follow me."

Sakura was led through various rooms, each one giving her the same impression: neglect, no organization, no set purpose. In each room she would pause to write notes on her paper while looking at the blueprints. Some rooms were better than others, such as a couple of the Emergency Rooms on the second floor. Sakura had pointed this out casually, to which Naomi explained that these were the ERs they used the most.

"Why not use all of the ERs?" Sakura had asked.

"We don't have enough medics to run them," Naomi admitted.

On the third floor were a bunch of empty rooms surrounding another lobby area. The rooms all had large glass windows equipped with blinds. The walls were painted a light blue in the rooms, the lobby an eggshell white. By the size of the area, this space seemed to cover the majority of the third floor. "What area is this?" Sakura asked, as she did for other areas she had been shown.

"It's a mixed department," Naomi began. "This side," she gestured to the east side of the floor, "is the Elderly Services Department. On the west side is the Pediatric Department."

Sakura started walking around the lobby, observing the layout. She then noticed that the west side was actually divided by thin walls to separate part of the children's area. There were rooms for the patients, but also a space that Sakura assumed was a play area of sorts. Due to the lack of toys and such, it was hard to tell. "Who designed the building, Naomi?"

The young woman shrugged, shoving her hands into her lab coat. "I don't know, I'm sorry. All I know is that Lord Otokage had contacted the company that built the hospital in the Hidden Sand Village, and this is what he built for us," she admitted. "The hospital was built at the same time that the Kage Residence was being built. Actually, the entire village was sort of put together in a haste; no one really checked to make sure buildings were designed properly."

Sakura let out an unattractive snort. "I've been to the hospital in the Sand Village," she told, laughing slightly. "I have to wonder why Sasuke would contact that company. The Suna Hospital was designed specifically for their village—there are different medical demands there," she explained. "For instance, they have a much bigger department for burns and skin cancer because of the climate. However, this hospital wouldn't need nearly as large of a floor for such things," she continued. "The hospitals throughout different geographic regions are designed differently because those areas differ in what injuries are more common." She looked around again then made a few notes on her papers.

"Okay, so now on to the next three floors," she mumbled, glancing through the blueprints.

"There really isn't much up there," Sakura heard from the woman. Sakura stopped shuffling through papers and glanced over. Naomi turned her gaze away, an ashamed look coming across her face. "I mean… there are rooms, but we don't use them for much except storage—not enough staff," she said quickly, reminding Sakura of what had been explained earlier. "The rooms are essentially designed the same as the second floor. There are rooms for patients, small reception areas, a couple larger rooms that are closed off with thicker walls than the rest of the hospital," she said. "I'm not really sure why, though."

"They might have been designed for diagnostic imaging," Sakura suggested. "Though I can't be sure." Turning slowly, Sakura took in the floor once more, considering everything she had seen. In all honesty, she wanted to push for Naomi to show her the rest of the floors, but Sakura got the vibe that Naomi was reluctant to do so. In just the first three floors, Sakura had found so many things wrong, and perhaps she had made that too apparent. Thinking about how she had reacted to things, Sakura felt that perhaps she had been a little rude. Shaking away those thoughts, Sakura gathered up her papers once more, carefully sliding them back into her bag.

"Are you leaving?" Naomi asked.

"Yeah," Sakura answered. "I think I have an idea of what needs to be done, but it won't happen right away. Naomi, who currently runs the hospital?" she asked. The two began walking back towards the elevator.

Naomi once again stuffed her hands into her pockets, becoming sheepish. "Well, I sort of do," she admitted slowly. "But not because I'm the best—because I'm not. I'm just here often enough to know where everything is. Its sort of unofficial and by default, to be honest."

Sakura gave her a surprised look. "Naomi, how old are you?" she asked.

"Twenty-one, ma'am," she answered. Sakura nodded; this woman was barely older than herself, and she was in charge of an entire hospital.

As they continued down to the main lobby area, Sakura considered this. In their entire tour of the first three floors, Sakura had come across barely twenty nurses. And the person who was in charge didn't have the best medical training of the staff. The place wasn't sterile, barely ran properly, the space was not being used efficiently, and Sakura had to wonder how many actual medics worked there.

She knew she had a lot of work to do, and she still had to train people.

* * *

It was several hours later when Sakura found herself bent over kitchen table, all of the blueprints laid flat for her to see, her sheet of paper with scribbled notes laying on the counter top behind her. Her dinner sat untouched by the stove. Layouts of different hospitals she had been in over the past several years ran though her mind's eye as she tried to figure out what to do with the hospital in Sound to make everything run better.

This time, Sakura did hear the clear knocking at her apartment door. "Its unlocked!" she shouted, not looking up from the papers before her. She heard the door open and close quietly, then someone shuffling by the door—taking off his shoes, Sakura assumed. She didn't need to look up to know that it was Sasuke.

"Hey," she greeted, shuffling over to glance over the plan of the first floor. "So I think I have a vague idea of how I'm going to fix your hospital," she started. Sasuke walked over and took a seat across the table from her, watching her gaze over the blueprints. Her brow was furrowed, face set in concentration. Sasuke wondered how long she had been standing here over the papers trying to fix the problems that he was unable to fix himself.

"So here is what I'm thinking so far," she beckoned him over to her side so she could show him her thought process. Sasuke stood and slowly made his way around the table, watching from over her shoulder. She pointed to the first blueprint, showing the layout of the main floor. "Right now, all that is set up is a table, some chairs, and a bunch of filing cabinets. This is supposed to be the main lobby, however—" she pulled over a sheet from the second floor "—the building designer intended for the lobby to be here. A full desk and organizational system is actually built into the space, whereas the opening lobby is pretty bare."

"Hn."

Sakura rolled her eyes; of course his vocabulary hadn't changed much. "What I'm thinking is to take the design of the second floor's lobby and build it into the first floor. It isn't too complicated, you could easily hire a Genin team to do it." She took a pencil and marked a small note of this idea on the main floor's blueprint.

This was how the following hour commenced: Sakura would move to different parts of each floor, showing where different departments would go, how many people it would take to run specific departments, writing notes and drawing figures on the blueprints to show the corrections that would be made. Every once and a while she would glance over at him, making sure that her plan was okay with him. Each time he would give her a slight nod, not taking his eyes off of her notes. It was a complicated process; Sasuke wasn't aware that there were so many different areas that a hospital needed to run—so many departments that had not yet existed in the Sound Hospital. Now, seeing all these plans being formed and finalized, Sasuke started to feel the sense of a weight being lifted. The hospital had been one of the biggest problems for several months. His shinobi were not being properly cared for, causing them to be low on ninja for missions at times. The mere knowledge that there would soon be a hospital that the village could rely on made Sasuke feel like things were going to start getting better.

One could only hope.

Sakura stepped away from the table and stretched with a yawn. "That's all I have for now, Lord Otokage," she said, exhaustion seeping into her voice.

"Don't call me that."

Sakura glanced over at her former teammate. The Uchiha was still staring at the papers, moving a couple over. "I have to call you that. You are ranked above me—it is only respectful that I call you by your title," Sakura said. "To do otherwise would be rude."

Sasuke titled his head slightly to look at her. "When there are others around, call me whatever you wish. But here, or when we are just talking . . . don't call me by my title," he said.

Sakura eyed him, bemused. "I would have thought you'd be all about formalities," she pondered out loud. "So you don't want me to call you 'Lord Otokage'?" she asked, clarifying.

"No." Sasuke turned to face her fully. If he were a different man, he probably would have smirked at her, called her annoying. Perhaps make some snide remark. But all he could manage was to look at her, knowing she would understand.

So when she slowly gave a small, sad smile, he knew that she understood. "Okay . . . Sasuke."

* * *

**Another down!**

**BTW I have a tumblr. looneyblonde (it's old, don't judge). I repost mostly naruto stuff, but if you'd all like I can post updates about stories, answer questions, whatevs.**


	3. A Bump in the Road

Over the next few weeks Sakura spent most of her days at the hospital. She had shown Naomi the plans she had come up with for the hospital, to which the girl responded with immediate enthusiasm. It had taken a week or so for the other hospital workers to accept Sakura into their environment and allow her to make the changes. Sakura could understand their hesitation; to the dedicated worker, the hospital would feel like a second home to which one put in their whole life and energy.

The event that changed their perception of her was when a small team of Jounin had come in from a mission with intermediate wounds. Sakura initially stood back and observed the workers, wanting to see how they handled the situation; she had yet to assess their skills. They had simply wrapped the wounds, only using medical chakra energy to take care of the minor cuts and scratches. _'They can't leave the hospital in that condition,_' she had thought when the medics started to discharge them. At that point Sakura had walked over, ordering the ninja to lie down where they were. She had the Sound medics unwrap the wounds so Sakura could assess them for herself, determining which man needed medical attention first. It had only taken five minutes for her to heal the entire team, for which the three men thanked her before getting on their way.

"You did that so fast . . ." one of the male nurses commented, staring after the retreating ninja.

"Isn't she incredible?" Naomi said then, smiling broadly. The other medics around her nodded slowly, giving Sakura looks of awe. "And she is going to train us to do the same!"

It was almost instantaneous; the hospital workers started taking every direct order Sakura gave them, many going as far as volunteering extra hours to get more work done. So far they had repainted the walls on each floor, cleaned up the floor tiles, fixed the lights, and disinfected all of the operating rooms. The bed linens for patient rooms were rounded up to be washed and they had received donated medical instruments from a nearby town. A back room on the first floor was arranged to hold files for patients and all other medical records.

"You can really train us?" one of the older men had asked while helping to organize the medical files.

Sakura had given him what she hoped was a reassuring smile. "I've trained a couple people before, and I plan on training all of you as much as possible," had been her response.

It was a rough process, but each day that another task was accomplished gave Sakura more hope for the medical unit. She was starting to believe that she was could really do this; she was going to help these people to the best of her ability.

It was late in the evening when she and Naomi were wrapping up their task or organizing the files and folders in the records room, both mentally exhausted. Sakura doubled-checked their work before shutting off the lights and leading them out, locking the door behind her. "You know, you could have gone home hours ago; you've been here for over twelve hours each day," Sakura commented, looking at Naomi's lethargic figure.

The older woman in return just shook her head, smiling lightly. "I like being here, Sakura. It is a privilege to be a part of such a major project for the village. I'm honored to do all of this."

Sakura could only smile at this. Throughout all of the hours the two had spent working together, Sakura could feel herself growing attached to the other woman. They talked often, sharing opinions of the hospital and joking around when they had the downtime. Sakura was surprised by how much Naomi had opened up to her; she had been so shy when they first met. "I'm glad I have you here," she said in response. "Its good to have a friend to work with through all of this." Naomi could only smile at this, blushing from embarrassment.

"But, Lord Otokage is your friend, too," she stated, sounding so sure of this.

Sakura snorted disgracefully. "Oh yeah, he is such a pal," she said rolling her eyes.

"You don't think so?"

"You _do_?" Sakura asked incredulously.

Naomi shrugged, thinking first before responding. "Well, the two of you used to be on the same ninja squad when he resided in the Hidden Leaf Village," she started off. "So he must have liked you even a little bit; it is only natural to grow close with teammates. I don't know much about what happened after that when he started to train under Orochimaru, but anytime I see him talking with you he doesn't seem to mind your presence."

Sakura considered this and had to admit that Naomi wasn't necessarily wrong. Since coming to this village, Sakura was required to meet with Sasuke often to report the progress of her work and make sure he agreed with her plans. There had been a few times where she would interrupt an official meeting, often forgetting to knock before entering his office. The few times this happened, she wouldn't miss the look of pure irritation on his face. It was different than the expressions he usually had on his face whenever they met to discuss the progress of her mission. Sakura couldn't argue that he didn't seem as annoyed with her as he did with other village officials and deities from nearby lands. She wouldn't say that he was relaxed, but he definitely was not as tensed and strict around her.

"Perhaps," Sakura answered after a minute, not missing the way Naomi smiled.

After the two woman had parted ways Sakura headed to the Otokage Tower to give Sasuke the report for the day. She headed into the building, nodding at Suigetsu as she passed through the front doors and made her way up the stairs. Sakura was only halfway down the hall when her ears started to pick up the sounds of raised voices. She slowed her pace, wondering what was going on. She crept up on the office, being as quiet as possible and masking her chakra.

She knew she was eavesdropping, but Sakura honestly didn't care.

From what she could tell, there were only two voices. The first she recognized to be Sasuke's, the second was familiar but she couldn't place it. The large doors muffled the diction, preventing Sakura from being able to understand what was being said. However, from the volume of the voices it seemed as if Sasuke were trying to maintain composure while the guest continued to shout.

'_What is going on?' _she wondered right as a chakra signature spiked suddenly, alarming her. Sakura wasted no time in throwing open the doors, intent on stopping a possible fight. She couldn't fight the old instinct to protect him, even if they had barely seen each up until a few weeks ago. Upon seeing whom the raging guest was, Sakura froze in place, forcing herself to not get too involved.

"Lord Raikage!"

The large man heard her surprised shout and turned to face her, his face turning into one of slight surprise. After observing her for a second his eyes narrowed. "How dare you walk in on a Kage meeting?" he growled.

Sakura's fist clenched around the door handle, holding herself in place. Painfully slow, she pulled herself to kneel before him in a form of an apology without actually having to say it. "I heard yelling, and when I sensed someone's chakra spike I grew worried for Sa—Lord Otokage," she mumbled, mentally cursing herself for almost referring to him informally in front of another Kage.

The Raikage huffed, still glaring down at her. "Girl, do you have any idea who this man is?" he growled lowly, approaching her slowly. "If you knew of what he has done, you wouldn't be so quick to rush in and defend him."

Sakura had to pause to choose her words wisely. "I am well aware of what has done over the past few years," she said slowly. "But you must remember that he is one of the reasons we won the war."

The Raikage's face turned into one of shock and rage. He moved to stand over her. "He is a criminal, one of the reasons the war was started—"

Sakura jumped up out of her kneeling position and glared up at the larger man. "That war was spearheaded by a pair of men who wanted revenge against the Leaf Village and the world to harvest their sick idea of peace," she shot back. She could feel her clenched fists shaking as she restrained herself. "Lord Otokage was a pawn for them to use!"

"I fail to understand how you can stand before me and defend the damned Uchiha brat," he said slowly, eyes narrowing at Sakura.

Sasuke stood from his chair and gave the woman a stern glare. "Leave, Sakura. You are speaking and acting out of place." Sakura turned to him and met his eyes; he hoped that she could understand his hidden reasoning. The Raikage's shinobi had caused enough problems as it was; he didn't want to find out what the man would do to someone standing up to him in support of the Sound.

"I can handle him," Sakura said suddenly, before the larger man could make a sound. To the surprise of the other two, Sakura turned back and faced the brother of the Eight Tails, giving him a hard look. "I've heard plenty about you," she said to him. "Naruto informed me about the type of person you are. Frankly, I like your brother a little better."

"You know the Nine Tails?"

This time Sakura did fix him with a glare. "Yes, I know _Naruto_," she replied, hoping he caught the correction she had given him. "He is my teammate, like a brother to me."

Realization settled on the Raikage's face, glancing over his shoulder at Sasuke before walking closer to Sakura. Sasuke watched him carefully, incredibly tense. Sakura knew she was much shorter than the Raikage, but she had confidence in her ability. She also trusted the fact that he would not outright attack a Leaf Shinobi.

"You would betray your friend Naruto and join the Sound Village?"

Sakura's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in anger. "_Excuse me_?" She stepped forward boldly, holding his gaze. "I am here on a mission, as an ally between my village and the Sound Village. I am not betraying anyone," she seethed.

At this he laughed with dark amusement, stepping around Sakura and heading for the door. "Anyone who directly allies themselves with Sasuke Uchiha is a traitor to the rest of the Shinobi world—that includes you."

Sasuke moved so fast that Sakura didn't even register his movements until he was standing in front of her, blocking her from the Raikage's view. Sakura couldn't see his face, but the tone in his voice was enough to make her body grow cold in slight fear. "You will leave her out of this—this is between us, do not get anyone else involved," he demanded, sounding livid.

"Insolent brat!" the Raikage shouted. "Hypocrite! After you attacked my brother, attacked the Five Kage Summit, and you tell _me_ not to involve others?"

Sakura glanced around Sasuke's shoulder to see the larger man bringing up a fist, chakra spinning madly about him. She didn't know what the other Kage was planning on doing, but frankly Sakura wasn't about to find out. She slid around Sasuke's form and brought her arm up to grip the raging man's wrist, effectively stopping whatever he had been about to do. "I understand that you are upset and severely displeased," she stated, taking on the calm tone Tsunade had taught her. "But this is not the time nor the place to settle personal disputes. Any violent action either of you initiate in this office would no doubt start another war," Sakura reminded him. "And I know that none of the villages can afford that at the moment. I don't know what the situation is between the two of you at the present time, but no positive solution will come if someone is approaching it with a hot head."

It was silent for a few moments before the Raikage stepped away from Sakura, pulling his hand back in the process. He gave her a calculating gaze. "You're very similar to that Naruto kid," he pondered. "Although maybe a bit more eloquent." Without another word or glance towards Sasuke, the Raikage stormed out of the office, door slamming as he exited.

Sakura turned around to look at Sasuke, wanting to make sure he was alright. However, she wasn't expecting to be met with a dark look that was laced with anger. "What's that look for?" she demanded, crossing her arms.

"Don't do that again, Sakura. Ever," he growled. "Do you understand?"

"What, you mean interrupting the meeting?" came her reply. "I'm sorry, but I sensed that something was wrong and I jumped in—ninja instincts, I couldn't help it—"

"Not that," he said, stepping towards her. Sakura stumbled back slightly until she fell back into one of the chairs. Sasuke leaned down, bracing his hands on both armrests, face level with her own in a stance that was meant to be intimidating. Sakura vaguely wondered if he practiced being intimidating. "What I mean is don't go jumping in front of an angry Kage trying to protect me, especially one that isn't fond of me."

Sakura's mind went numb and blank as she stared at the face that was less than a foot from her own. His eyes were narrowed, mouth set in a thin line, muscles tense. It had been a while since she had seen him this worked up, it was almost strange, like a distant memory that she couldn't quite grasp. With slight hesitation she placed a tender hand on his upper arm. "Sasuke, what's been going on?" she asked softly. "I know it isn't any of my business, but maybe I can help?" she offered. She had assisted Tsunade countless times with political problems that arose in the Hokage office; usually the blonde woman was too tired or angry to deal with it, leaving several tasks to Shizune and Sakura.

The Uchiha shifted his gaze to the side before straightening up. He walked over to the widow and gazed out over the sleeping village. The image of him standing there reminded Sakura of how Tsunade would look over the village after a long day in the office, and she wondered if Sasuke was as stressed as Tsunade always found herself to be. "Lately there have been an unusually high number of Sound Shinobi being injured while out on missions," he started slowly. "More than seventy percent of the mission reports have stated that our ninja are being attacked by Lightening Shinobi. I have ordered all of our shinobi to not fight back if they can help it. As far as I know, they haven't."

"So the Kumo ninja are targeting the Oto ninja," Sakura summarized. "But why is the Raikage so angry with you?"

"He does not forgive so easily. Because of that, neither will his village."

" 'The attitudes of a village usually are affected by the beliefs and actions of the current leader'; Tsunade said that once," Sakura recalled, thinking of her meeting with Tsunade barely a month ago. "The Raikage is still angry with your actions against himself and his brother, so his shinobi are acting out on his behalf." She thought back to the Jounin she had healed at the hospital not so long ago and wondered if they had been victims of the hatred coming from Kumokagure. "And I'm guessing he won't call off his shinobi."

Sasuke didn't respond, giving Sakura the impression that she had hit to target on the point. She was quickly remembering why she liked the Raikage's brother slightly more. Standing from the chair, Sakura walked over to the desk and put down the hospital report she had intended to drop off. "I wanted to discuss starting the training program soon, but it can wait," she said softly, observing his tense form. "Go home and get some rest, Sasuke."

Without another word Sakura excused herself from the large office. Sasuke continued standing by the window looking out over the buildings. Below there was a small beam of light as Sakura opened the main doors and started making he way down the street. Sasuke shook his head slowly, a smirk coming to his lips. He found it ironic that she was ordering him to get some sleep when he knew very well that she almost never slept. He saw the hours that were being logged in at the hospital; she was pulling shifts that were a minimum of fourteen hours. On top of that, she was making time for meetings in his office as well as planning outside of the hospital walls. They girl was practically a hypocrite. But as Sasuke looked at the stack of paperwork on his desk, mocking his desire to sleep, he knew that he would be up for at least another four hours. With a long sigh escaping his lips, the Otokage sat back down at his desk with the hopes that he would be out of his office by at least 2am.

* * *

Sakura sat at her kitchen table going over the list of people interested in medical ninjutsu training. Of the 102 people currently employed at the hospital, 83 had signed their names onto a paper Sakura had posted in their locker room and lounge. It was more than twice the amount of people Sakura was expecting. The idea of having such a large group excited her but also frightened her. There was so much to go over; she had no idea how much these medics knew. There were so many bases that needed to be covered before they could be trained. She would have to form tests to make sure they were up to date on medical knowledge, that they could perform basic procedures that didn't require any chakra, could name different parts of the internal systems of the human body.

It was everything Tsunade had done to prepare Sakura for her own medical ninjutsu training. Back then, Sakura knew very little and had to be taught just about everything from the basics, reading over old textbooks and medical journals. But Sakura was smart and had learned fast. As far as the medics in Sound, there were two things Sakura could hope for: that most of them already knew a good bit and needed refreshing, and that they could learn quickly and efficiently as she had done. Sakura knew that it was a lot of work, but each day she was gaining more hope and confidence in the people she was helping.

Vaguely Sakura wondered if Naomi had official files on the people employed at the hospital. She wondered what each staff member specialized in, what their background training included, and their hospital positions. Sakura still was amazed; it was a miracle the hospital ran at all with how run down it used to be and how alarmingly understaffed it was.

Sakura also desperately wanted access to the medical texts back in the Leaf Village. She hadn't grabbed much as far as material when leaving, assuming she would just be doing small bits of training, such as help with chakra control and which techniques to use with certain injuries. She didn't think about the possibility that she would have to fully train people. She pulled out a notebook and started making a rough lesson outline, struggling in her tired state to recall exactly how Tsunade had done it. Depending on the staff's average knowledge of medical information, she figured the most efficient way of teaching would be an open lecture, going off her own memory and knowledge. She hoped that they would be smart enough to take notes for themselves and study when the time was available.

After another hour Sakura sat back in her chair, running hands over her tired eyes. Glancing at the clock, she cursed herself for staying up so late—she had to be at the hospital in six hours.

Not bothering to put away the papers laying everywhere, Sakura made the quick decision to simply march to her bedroom, shut off the lights, and fall into a heap onto the mattress, forgoing the task of undressing.

What had she agreed to?

* * *

**R&amp;R if you'd like.**


	4. Bitter Feelings

Sasuke could tell first thing in the morning how the rest of his day would go. If he woke before the sun, it would be a productive day; if he woke up to birds chirping, he was late and was already behind. Either of these scenarios would determine his mood: either his mind would be clear and allow him to walk into his office calmly, or his thoughts would be at lightening speed and cause him to become irritated. His initial mood for the day would affect how he treated others, which in turn would determine how people treated him and if they would do their jobs right.

All of this was predetermined the minute Sasuke woke up.

It was a pattern that had developed not long after the creation of the new Sound Village. At first it hadn't been so bad. Sasuke rose early every morning, knowing what work needed to be done, determined to complete that day's tasks. After a month or so, his body had started to fight his will. One morning after a week of late nights, his body had made the decision to sleep past 10 am; it was a side effect of sleep debt that Sasuke hated. If it hadn't been for Suigetsu pounding on his front door screaming his head off, Sasuke didn't doubt that he would have slept longer. That had been a rough day; stacks of files and papers waiting for a signature had covered his desk, he was snapping at anyone who bothered him, and he barely ate, making him even more irritable.

After that day, anyone who worked in the Otokage tower knew that if Sasuke was late, he was not to be bothered. It became an unspoken rule.

So when Sasuke woke up several hours later than what should have been legal for someone in his position, he believed that it was going to be a very, very rough day.

* * *

By the time Sasuke got to the office, after storming past a snickering Suigetsu—to whom Sasuke had given a death glare—he wanted so badly to just turn around and walk right out of the building. Not only were there the numerous stacks of papers and scrolls lying on his desk, but in the office sat the council representatives, two men who were twice Sasuke's age. The Otokage mentally reprimanded himself for being so late; he should have remembered the scheduled meeting with them.

"You're late," one of them stated, giving Sasuke a dirty look.

The Uchiha continued walking to his desk, setting different stacks of papers onto the floor. "I apologize for making you wait." _'I'm not stupid, you hags.'_

"You're forty-five minutes late," said the other, crossing his arms.

Sasuke sat at his desk, pulling out the documents that were to be discussed at this meeting. Yes, it was already turning out to be a very bad day.

* * *

Three hours later, Sasuke almost wanted to bash his head into a wall. But he didn't, because that would be counterproductive. After the council members had left, Sasuke had been put into a very foul mood. The meeting was supposed to have been about bringing more money into the village so that businesses could thrive, as well as approving construction requests. But it had turned into them criticizing him for "being lazy and unproductive" as well as "worrying about projects that had no benefit to the village". At that point they had started to question his decision to support the work being put into the hospital, telling him that there was not enough in the budget to fund everything that was being planned. With a thinning patience he had to repeatedly remind them that the hospital was using it's own funding and had not yet asked for financial assistance from the Otokage. He had even shown them the signed paperwork that clarified this. Then they questioned why he had contacted the Leaf Village, who had once been enemies with Sound. He had to remind them that Konoha was now an ally, the strongest ally they currently had. The two old men spent two hours of the meeting telling Sasuke everything he was apparently doing wrong as the Otokage, which only left half an hour to discuss matters that had yet to be resolved. Now, not only was Sasuke still behind on paperwork, but he also had to contact different business owners and give them the news that the construction they had requested would have to wait because the council didn't deem it necessary to discuss.

If it weren't for the fact that he was required to have a council, Sasuke would have done away with half of the members in the first week. Most did their job efficiently without questioning others; these were people for whom Sasuke was grateful. Then there were others, such as the two he had to constantly meet with, who could care less for the villagers and more about seeing things run the way they saw fit.

Sasuke summoned two Jonin to his office. He handed them the documents, giving them the task of explaining to different people why construction would not be started yet.

"What do we tell them when they get mad?" asked a man a few years older than Sasuke.

"That the council is stupid," was murmured under his breath. The two Jonin snickered before regaining their composure. Looking at the amount of papers on his desk needing to be signed, the Otokage sat back down, running a hand over the back of his stiff neck. "Give them my sincere apologies."

It didn't help that there wasn't enough money to do the construction. A lot of workers in several departments of the village were putting in unpaid hours just to get necessary work done. But everything was getting to the point where money was needed; the last thing the village could handle was a rise in the homeless because no one could afford their homes if there wasn't money to pay bills. It was a delicate system.

Sasuke should have known that he was in over his head when he agreed to rule over this village. It hadn't been long after the war when hundreds of people were left homeless after numerous towns had been destroyed. The five kages had met to discuss what was to be done about the sudden influx of refuges asking for shelter; no one had enough room for all of the homeless and each village was still sorting out their own issues. It had been Gaara who raised the idea of starting a new village. "Different empires have fallen," he'd said, "several areas are left without a leader. If we combine different areas and form a new village, it will give them a place to reside without overcrowding the existing villages as well as establishing a ruler to the fallen empires." According to Tsunade, it had been Naruto who recommended Sasuke. There had been uproar from the Raikage, but Naruto had already explained to the others that Sasuke was on their side during the war. They all were aware of the history of the Uchiha and Leaf Village; Naruto used this to explain Sasuke's desire to prevent such an event from happening again by becoming the Hokage. With that he'd laughed and said he already called dibs on that title, and would be proud to one day ally his village with Sasuke's.

In another meeting only a few days later, Sasuke had sat with the other leaders to discuss what being a Kage entailed. They had already elected a council for him—to which he was forced to agree upon. Within that meeting they had signed all necessary documents, redrawn the political map, and sent out a notice to all homeless people that there was to be a new village made for them to reside in.

"You will be known as the Otokage," the Raikage had stated gruffly. At that Sasuke had glared at him.

"You want this to be the new Sound Village?" he asked slowly, looking at all of the members at the meeting. A couple people had shifted in their seats, uncomfortable under his stare. "The village was created by Orochimaru to be a collection base for human experimentation. People have feared the Sound Ninja, no one wanted to be associated with them." His eyes had narrowed. "Putting together such a village would give people the idea that Orochimaru's teachings have continued, which would make people fear and despise this new village. Why call it the Sound Village?"

"Because most of the people looking for a place to stay were either under Orochimaru's control or were experimented on," the Raikage stated. "The name seemed fitting."

At that point Naruto had leaned over to Sasuke. "You can always change the title later," he suggested, giving a dirty look to the Raikage. "Or change the way people think of Sound. It doesn't have to be feared."

As Sasuke recalled, it had been Naruto's words that sparked the determination in Sasuke to lead a village that had once been feared and become one that could live in peace. He had no idea how much work went into being a Kage, especially for a new village. There were some days when Sasuke wanted to burn half the stuff in the office, but then he would remember that it wouldn't solve anything and he would be forced to start all over.

Sasuke glanced over the document before him again. It was a list of all the students that were to graduate from the Academy in three weeks. He was to create certificates stating that they graduated and were moving on to Genin status, meaning he would have to add them to the book containing bio sheets on all registered shinobi. He also needed to create Genin squads and assign them to Jonin leaders, which required knowing the strengths of every student and placing students together based on ability to make the teams balanced and potentially specialize in different tasks for when they were older.

Sifting through other papers and scrolls, Sasuke looked to see what else had to be done for the day. The construction issues were put on hold thanks to the council; a small caravan had arrived the other day asking to be members of the village, so papers needed to filled out for them; there were also mission reports that needed to be reviewed and filed.

Looking at the clock, Sasuke figured that if he spent the next seven hours without interruption he could actually go home and sleep tonight. _'The papers for the people wanting to be members of the village will take an hour,_' he reasoned with himself, trying to figure out the best order to get things done. _'There are about twenty mission reports to review, most D-Ranked, so that shouldn't be too bad. The construction papers were going to be the worst of it, but that's been put back. But now there are the Genin squads that need to be arranged. The academy needs these in eight days to prepare . . ._'

Making a quick decision, Sasuke pulled over the documentation for the soon-to-be villagers so they could be accepted into the village officially. Yes, Sasuke thought he could get this done today, as long as no one bothered him.

* * *

The hospital was bustling that day. With the Academy students graduating in a mere few weeks, young kids were rushing to get their physicals in so their medical papers could be updated before joining the shinobi ranks. Several families sat in the lobby on the main floor, some with kids with them, others waiting while their child was in the process of getting a physical. Since the hospital had yet to get the main desk built into the lobby, Sakura and Naomi had set up a few more tables to make room for all the paperwork. Two male nurses around their late twenties were taking care of the lobby. One table held the blank paperwork needed to be filled out prior to the physical. The second table was for finished patients where the paperwork would be immediately filed, given to the man by one of the doctors. Sakura had made it clear to all the staff that once a doctor started filling out papers, the patient was not to have access to the official copy, but give them a second copy for their own purposes. She'd had too many problems in Konoha with shinobi faking information to be allowed on higher-ranked missions; she wasn't about to trust some new Genin with medical documents.

Sakura had five of her medics taking care of the physicals, including Naomi. The previous day Sakura had made sure that everyone knew how to give a proper physical; today, they were rotating shifts to get the practice in. The pink-haired woman was pleased with everyone working so efficiently. As she walked from different areas to observe and give assistance when needed, she felt a sense of pride at how far the staff had come since she first arrived. So far, there didn't seem to be any problems with how the day was running.

Now, she stood behind the two tables, observing the lobby. The academy students were jumping with excitement, eager to become Genin. Parents were waiting for their names to be called so their child could have their turn with a doctor. The two men working the tables were taking on the madness with a calm demeanor and a sense of professionalism that Sakura was proud of. She smiled to herself, glad that they were making it through such a hectic day.

"Miss Haruno?"

Sakura looked over to her left to see a man in a Jonin outfit with a folder in her hand. "That's me," she replied calmly, eyeing him.

He sighed with what seemed like relief, a small apologetic smile on his face. "Sorry, but I've yet to meet you and wasn't sure if I would find you right away," he explained sheepishly. "I have a message for you from the Otokage." He held out the folder to her. Sakura took it and opened it. Inside were all of her request orders for the construction needed in the hospital. Sakura looked through the different papers, noticing that none of them were signed for consent to start. She moved her gaze up and stared at the Jonin, who looked apologetic once more. "We can't fulfill the construction requests."

Sakura closed the folder, beckoning him to follow her. She led him out of the lobby and down one of the hallways to an empty room. After closing the door, Sakura turned to him. "Why are none of these signed?" she asked slowly. "If the Otokage wants this hospital to function as a high-class hospital, we need these changes made!"

The man before her bowed slightly. "Please, I am just a messenger." He came up from his bow. "Lord Otokage gives his sincere apologies—"

"He's going to be saying more than sorry when I'm through with him," she whispered, glaring at the folder in her hands.

"It isn't his fault," the Jonin said quickly. Sakura raised an eyebrow in question. The Jonin looked off to the side. "Look, I shouldn't be saying this . . . but I know that the hospital construction is important." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "The council has to approve of construction requests with the Otokage; the decision isn't just up to him. No one had their requests fulfilled."

Sakura groaned in frustration. She had already dealt with some of the members of the council. They'd yelled at her a few times for the "outrageous plans" she had for the hospital. She almost wanted to take the situation personally, but then remembered that no one had a construction request processed. Sakura looked to the Jonin. "Is the Otokage in his office right now?"

The Jonin suddenly looked scared, much to Sakura's surprise. "Yes, he is . . ." he said slowly. "But he is very busy—he came to the office late today," he whispered, as if this were a significant matter. After a moment Sakura shrugged before walking out of the room, folder in hand. The Jonin ran after her. "Wait, you aren't going to go to his office, are you?"

Sakura looked over her shoulder as she continued through the lobby. "Of course I am," she called back. "I don't care what the council says; these papers need to be approved! I'm only going to be here for so long, I want to make sure I help this hospital as much as I can before I have to go back."

With that hanging in the air, the Jonin looking even more scared than before, Sakura marched out of the hospital and made her way to the Otokage Tower.

* * *

Sasuke read over the mission report once more, irritation evident on his facial features. This was the third report _today_ in which a team claimed to have come across Kumo ninja, resulting in a fight. However, one of the members of this particular Chunin squad decided to fight back, resulting in his teammates having to drag him out and risking the purpose of the mission. Sasuke wrote a note to call a meeting with the team and placed it on the corner of his desk. After a moment he wrote another note to have a meeting with the entire council to discuss the matter officially. This was getting out of hand. He hated telling his shinobi that they couldn't fight back in these instances, but giving in to the ninja from Kumo would ultimately result in high tensions between the villages.

Well, _higher_ tensions.

Sasuke rolled the scroll back up and placed it in the pile of B-Ranked mission reports to be filed at the end of the night. Looking at the pile of reports, he was pleased to see that there were only a few left to do. Then he had to start going over the sheets of Academy graduates and the day would be over. Sasuke made to grab for another scroll when there was a knocking at the double doors of his office. He looked up slowly, glaring at the door.

One of the doors swung open and Sakura walked in. Sasuke immediately noticed the folder in her hands. She walked across the office, holding it in the air. "Sasuke, I want to talk about—"

"No."

Sakura halted her steps just in front of his desk, eye twitching. "No?"

Sasuke reached again for a scroll. "No. I'm busy. Go away." He had barely broken the seal on the scroll when Sakura snatched it out of his hands. "Sakura."

"Lord Otokage."

Sasuke's glare intensified. For Sakura to call him by his formal title meant only one thing: she was pissed. The last time she had called him by his title they'd had an argument that lasted twenty minutes—it had been about budgeting the hospital.

Now, as she stood before him with her hands on her hips, lips tilted into a frown, Sasuke could almost feel her irritation. "Do you know what these are?" she asked, shoving the file under his nose. Sasuke took it out of her hands and threw it onto the desk. "I need them signed."

"You want them signed? Go find the damn council members and get them to sign it."

"There was supposed to be a meeting this morning to discuss this so that I could get started with construction on the hospital—what happened at the meeting?" she demanded.

Sasuke stood and placed his hands on the desk so he was at eye level with the woman before him. "Sakura. Get. Out." He grabbed back his scroll that she had rudely taken from him and opened it, getting back to work. After minute of reading over the mission report—D-Rank, catching a damn cat, for Heaven's sake—Sasuke noticed that Sakura had yet to leave. She continued to stand in front of the desk, arms crossed over her chest. "Sakura, you're really starting to irritate me." He glanced up at her. "I'm busy, I'll sign the damn papers tomorrow."

"Just sign them now and be done with it."

"I told you, the council has to sign them first—"

"If you would look at the 'damn papers' you would see that I have their signatures," she snapped. Sasuke paused then took the folder once more. Opening it and fully inspecting the papers, he saw that she was right: the required signatures were indeed there. "It took me almost ten minutes of harassment and threats, but I managed to get the guy with the goatee to sign them," she said. Sasuke could have smirked then; the "guy with the goatee" was the one of the men in his office that morning.

Sasuke grabbed a pen and started reading through the hospital's request papers, signing at the bottom of each.

While the kage before her was signing her papers, Sakura walked around and stood beside him, looking at the amount of work on his desk. She recognized the mission report scrolls. Noticing the larger pile, Sakura asked if they were completed, receiving a nod of confirmation. Sakura looked around the office and spotted the large shelves that held other mission scrolls. The pile on the desk was lifted into her arms and she started making her way over to the shelves. "What are you doing?"

Sakura didn't look at him. "Putting these away," she answered, setting the scrolls on the floor before grabbing the one on top.

Sasuke sighed with exasperation. "There is an order—"

"I know," she told him, giving him a small smile over her shoulder as she placed a scroll in its rightful place. "First by mission rank, then by what type of mission it was." Sasuke eyed her warily. "I worked under Tsunade for years—I know how a lot of this stuff works," she explained.

The next ten minutes passed in silence as Sasuke finished up the final few mission reports while Sakura filed away the ones that were already reviewed and signed. As she was placing the final scroll away Sasuke came up behind her with the few that he just signed off. He stood just behind her, placing all three in the exact same spot—D-Rank, escort. Sakura watched as he walked back to his desk and sat back down. "What else do you have to do?" she asked, walking over to stand a few feet from his side.

"Don't you have work to do at the hospital?"

"Not really. All that was going on today was Academy students getting physicals before becoming Genin. The staff is handling it well," she answered lightly, beaming.

Sasuke pulled over the pile of sheets containing information on the students about to graduate the Academy. "Writing graduation certificates, forming squads, putting bio sheets in the book with the other registered shinobi," he said off-handedly, thinking of where to start to make the process faster.

"Can I help?" Sasuke looked up at her, expression blank. The woman blushed lightly, glancing out the window—avoiding his gaze, Sasuke figured. "I mean, I have nothing better to do—and I've done stuff like this before . . ." She glanced around the office once more, walking over to a box sitting at the corner of the room. She bent and pulled out a stack of stationary that Sasuke honestly didn't know was there. "How about this," she started, pulling one of the chairs over to the desk to sit across from him. "I'll write out the certificates—you only need to sign them—and you can start going over bio sheets for squads. Deal?"

After some initial reluctance, Sasuke allowed her to assist him; after all, she was saving him time, so he didn't see anything wrong with it. He placed all the sheets into organized piles based on strengths. Most of the students seemed to excel in some form of ninjutsu; about half of the students had a strong background in genjutsu while a small handful of students were skilled with taijutstu. Sasuke had pulled out sheets of teams to base the new ones off of. After about twenty minutes of going over individual bio sheets Sasuke began putting possible trios together, assessing the skills as a whole and imagining them as a team.

He couldn't help but think that he could get this done faster if he were alone. He was aware of Sakura's presence only a few feet from him. She was close enough that he could catch bits of her shampoo; it was a sweet smell, enough so that it contrasted with the smells of dust, ink, and papers that Sasuke had become accustomed to in the past year. Every so often he caught himself glancing over at her, noticing the way she resting her head in the palm of her left hand, fingers threaded through her bangs to shove the hair out of her eyes as she wrote. Seeing the growing pile of certificates, he wondered how often she had done this sort of thing with Tsunade back in Konoha; she seemed comfortable with the current tasks.

A small part of his mind thought that maybe she was comfortable around him, but Sasuke immediately shoved that aside. It was a wonder the two of them could be in the same room together without one of them bursting, considering at one point they were trying to kill each other. Sasuke could still clearly recall that day, seeing right through the lies she fed him, knowing that the kunai was poisoned, seeing the look on her face when she tried to kill him. The look on her face when he'd tried to kill her.

"Sasuke, are you oaky?"

Sasuke opened his eyes and saw that he had snapped his pen in half. He took the broken pieces and tossed them into a trashcan at the end of the desk. He didn't want to discuss this with her, not now . . . but the sudden memory of that day had brought back old bitter feelings, ones that had never been resolved. If he didn't deal with his thoughts now they would only plague him the rest of the night. So he leaned back in his chair and looked at her. He watched as her face turned from curious to worried. "Why?" he asked. Her brows furrowed in confusion. "Why did you try to kill me?"

The moment the entire question had been thrown into the air Sakura's face crumbled into a look of despair. She leaned back in her chair, pulling her legs up and wrapping arms around her knees. For a couple minutes Sakura completely avoided his gaze, seeming to fight back tears. When she brought her gaze back to his, Sasuke wondered if this was a conversation he was ready to endure.

"Back then, I didn't know the truth about Itachi," she said softly. Sasuke ignored the pang in his chest at the mention of his beloved brother. "All I knew was that you had joined Akatsuki, attacked a village leader, and killed Danzo—and yes, I know about Danzo," she clarified, seeing the look on his face. "They were talking about killing you . . . they had come into my tent and told me this, asking permission . . . but they would do it anyway." Her eyes clouded over with old memories that she was trying to force down. "At that time, I believed that you were so lost in your own pain and darkness, I thought that . . . I didn't think we could save you. I know I was crazy then," she told him. "I had plotted against my comrades, knocking them out, lied to Naruto and Kakashi, and truly believed that the only way to save you was to kill you, to prevent you from getting worse." She wiped away a lone tear that fell from her eye.

He didn't like it, but Sasuke could see her reasoning. He had been in a dark place. "You had given up hope for me." He had given up on himself.

Sakura started wiping at more tears furiously, running a hand through her hair. "I don't know . . . I think for a short time, maybe . . . everything was happening so fast, I never took the chance to process any of it." Sakura took a few breaths to calm herself; she wasn't even bothering to stop the tears from falling. "I tried, but I couldn't do it," she whispered. "I can never kill you." Sasuke closed his eyes, suddenly feeling more exhausted than the past few weeks.

"You could have killed me—there was a small window of opportunity," he said slowly, memories flooding his mind. Those few seconds of distraction, she had been right behind him . . . "You chose not to do it."

Watching her face, a strange look came into her eyes; Sasuke couldn't tell what she was thinking or feeling. Slowly her head shook, confirming his statement.

"Sasuke, I'm sorry," Sakura said slowly. "I've been wanting to say that for over a year now . . . I'm so sorry."

Sasuke ran a hand over his face. Here they were, after weeks of getting along better than they had in years, they were talking about his near-assassination. She was crying in front of him, looking as if someone had just died, and he felt like there was a rock in his chest. He should have never said anything in the first place.

She started wiping at her face again, using the end of her shirtsleeve to dry her cheeks. "I haven't cried in years," she mumbled. She stood up and took the chair back to the side of the room from where she'd taken it. Sasuke muttered a small 'sorry', causing Sakura to smile sadly. "No, it . . . I don't really mind." She was lying. She looked at the stack of certificates she'd written out, noticing that they were done. "Why did you ask?" she questioned, almost hesitantly.

Sasuke debated on answering or not. On one hand, he was too tired to continue this conversation. But then, he might as well finish it out. "I couldn't understand why you always seem so calm here," he started. "We both tried to kill each other, but . . ."

"But neither of us acted as if it ever happened," she finished for him. Sakura wrapped her arms around herself and looked out the window. The sun was setting into a crimson red sky that melted into a deep purple and black. "I didn't notice it until coming here, but I really missed you," she admitted. Sasuke refused to show it, but this surprised him. They remained in silence for a few minutes, neither looking at the other. Sakura was the one to break the silence first. She moved from her position and grabbed the hospital file that still sat beside Sasuke, her side brushing against his arm. "The certificates are ready to be signed. I'm going to go see if the contractor is still in his office so I can give him these papers," she said as she walked towards the door. Before leaving she paused, looked back at Sasuke and seemed as if she was going to say something else. But she bit her tongue and Sasuke watched her leave the office, closing the door behind her.

He knew that he would never say it; he still sometimes denied it. But somewhere deep in his mind, Sasuke knew that for a while he had missed her, too.


	5. When Progress is Made

Sakura was avoiding Sasuke.

It had been just over a week since their talk in his office, and ever since then Sakura had made it her personal duty to avoid the man as much as possible. In all of the crazy thoughts that ran through her mind of what would happen during her time in Sound, none of those ideas came close to what she had experienced. Never had she expected for him to bring up the topic concerning her own darkest moments. The sudden rush of those memories while in his office resurfaced everything Sakura had felt back then: all of the fear, hurt, confusion, loneliness, anger; she could still recall the moment when she gave up on herself for being too weak to bring Sasuke back. She knew the exact moment she felt that Sasuke was too far gone to save. She couldn't bear to see him fall deeper into the pits of hell that his life was turning into.

None of this made her decision okay, but no one could invalidate her feelings.

That night, after she told Sasuke what had happened, she'd had her first nightmare in over a year. It had been a montage of images, none of them making much sense yet she understood perfectly. Dark skies with red clouds, Sai's cold words of truth, lightening piercing the sky. A chilling laugh rung in her ears, blood running down his face. They were mixed with pictures of a dark night that was suddenly replaced with a blindingly bright red sky, the moon tainted with tomoes. Bodies on the ground, bodies suspended in the air. A demonic man, an ancient woman, boiling heat and everlasting battle.

Seldom would Sakura have nightmares, there wasn't a whole lot in her life that she feared. But when sleep was plagued with terrors they were always the same.

After the first night of waking up in a cold sweat, a scream dying in her throat, Sakura unconsciously started working so much that she wasn't able to sleep with dreams. She stayed busy long enough in the day and there was less chance of waking up with remnants of unwanted visuals and emotions.

The only way to keep the nightmares at bay was to avoid what was in each of those visions.

On the brighter side of things, the hospital was growing rapidly. The construction on the main lobby had started, giving Sakura more than enough to busy herself with. She was putting in double-shifts at the hospital to oversee the construction, as well as help with the new equipment being sent in and installed. More than half of the equipment was donated from other villages; the rest was covered by the hospital, which was suddenly thriving with business. Word had spread around the village and nearby towns of the work being put into the hospital, causing more people to utilize its services. Within the past two weeks the staff had seen an increase in regular patients getting check-ups, medications for the elderly, vaccinations for children, and anything else involved in annual medical care. Anything requiring major surgery or serious medical ninjutsu was left to Sakura; the training program had yet to be approved of.

With all of the work inside the hospital, working at the hospital, and getting things together to present the training program to the council and Otokage, Sakura had very little time for anything else. Whenever she needed a messaged delivered, she usually could spot a random worker just sitting around and gave them the task of running an errand. If the message was for Sasuke, Sakura always made sure to find someone else to deliver it.

She couldn't face him, not just yet. It had taken Sakura so long to get back to some sort of normalcy after the war. She refused to allow herself to wallow in self-loathing once more. She had a job; she would not let emotions become a distraction.

Sakura was sifting through the piles of papers on the desk in her office at the hospital. (_Holy crap she had an office; it was like she was official or something)_. The staff members had finally completed their medical examination tests; Sakura had been itching to evaluate everyone on their knowledge so she could finalize the training program. Sure, she had seen them working well with general cases, but until she was sure of what each individual was capable of there was no way she was trusting them with anything major. From what Naomi had told her, the surgeries were half-assed prior to Sakura's arrival. Anything more than what they could handle was taken care of by another doctor, either brought in or by sending the patient out of the village.

Looking through the tests, it seemed like everyone had some general idea of the basic knowledge that was required to be a medic. A few of them had gone through a small training program in another village before Otogakure was formed. For this, Sakura was thankful; these few individuals could be started on field training and observations almost immediately. Everyone else would have to undergo several training lectures. The majority of the staff was very intelligent and learned quickly, allowing Sakura to estimate that a full training program could be completed in just less than ten months. It was fast, but Sakura knew they could do it efficiently. They would learn in a lecture and get practical work during their hospital shifts. Once the training program was completed they could choose to do general surgery or be individually trained in specialized fields.

It was a lot to think about, Sakura knew, but just thinking about it gave her jolts of excitement and determination. It left her feeling giddy, something she hadn't experienced since her own training days.

Looking down at the current test in her hand, Sakura smiled widely. On the test had been several open-ended questions for scenarios that most medics faced. Naomi had answered each question with such detail, it was a shock that she had never been through a training program. Not only that, but she was an innovative thinker. A lot of the ideas she presented on paper intrigued Sakura. Admittedly, Naomi was not the best with a scalpel. She sometimes had shaky hands and could get squeamish at grotesque injuries. But she was very intelligent, maybe on the same level as Sakura. Smiling to herself once more, Sakura placed Naomi's test off to the side to go over again later; she was interested in seeing how the woman fared in the training.

A knock sounded; Ken, one of the male doctors, walked in; he was one of the few who had training elsewhere.

"I just wanted to let you know that a man came in with an arm nearly severed. Haru and I managed to reattach it, but we would appreciate if you could inspect our work to make sure it was done properly."

Sakura stood from her chair, surprised. Why didn't anyone tell her this when the man came in? With a nod she followed the fellow doctor down the hall and down to the second level. The man led her to a post-op room where in a bed lay a shinobi who couldn't have been more than seventeen. There were wrappings on half his chest down to the elbow of his left arm. As Sakura walked into the room his face turned into an impatient scowl.

"I thought you guys were bringing in the head of the hospital, not some dumb nurse," he grumbled, eyeing Sakura in annoyance.

The pink-haired woman gave him a sickeningly sweet smile. She sat down in the chair by the hospital bed and crossed her legs, leaning back and drumming her fingers against the clipboard that had been handed to her. She glanced through the papers for the patient, giving details of the surgery. She saw a few interesting points that didn't make much sense. Looking up at the two doctors, Sakura motioned for them to stand before her.

"So, explain what happened," she said lightly. The scoff from the teenager was mutely ignored.

Haru stepped forward, arms crossed over his broad chest. His sandy blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail, a common appearance of his after Sakura once told him he had to pull it back or cut it off. It was longer than her hair. "Shin: seventeen, Chunin. Brought in by a teammate when there was a training accident in the forests just outside the village walls—"

"It wasn't an accident, I knew what I was doing!"

Haru glared at the kid in the bed; Ken rolled his eyes, giving Sakura an exasperated look. She almost had to laugh. They reminded her of Shikamaru and Kiba in their mannerisms. "Shut it, kid," Haru snapped. His eyes turned back to his superior. "According to the teammate, Shin was trying out a new jutsu. Obviously something went wrong—" he gave the kid a pointed glare "—because he was dragged here with his arm dangling by a couple layers of muscle and skin. He was promptly taken into surgery. Due to the blood loss we decided to use some medical ninjutsu to bind the appendage faster." There was a pause as Haru glanced at Ken. Sakura raised an eyebrow at the two. "We couldn't manage bind the skin cells of the arm and shoulder directly to one another, so we used the kid's hair as a medium to stitch the skin together."

Sakura stood and centered chakra into her palms. She placed her hands over the patient's shoulder junction, checking for any openings or possible infections. Everything seemed to have been done cleanly. It was not the first time Sakura had heard of using hair as a way of stitching the body together; actually, it had only ever been done once—for Neji after the retrieval mission for Sasuke several years ago. "So whose idea was it to use the boy's hair?" she asked, finishing up the post-op check.

"Naomi suggested it, ma'am," Ken said immediately. "When we were trying to figure out the best way to save his arm she had thrown the suggestion out there. It was the first method that was working so we stuck with it."

Sakura nodded and signed the papers, handing them to the doctors. "Shin, I'm going to keep you here overnight for observations. If everything is looking fine in the morning, we will finish you up and you'll be discharged. And if you argue with me or any of my staff members I will restrain you," she said firmly, narrowing her eyes. The boy grumbled, but nodded.

She motioned to the two other men in the room and they followed her down the hallway. Once they were in a deserted area she turned to face them, smiling. "You two did very well today, I'm actually impressed," she said. The medics thanked her politely. "The two of you completed training in another village, correct?" A confirming nod. "I want to give you two another medical test. If you pass it, you'll be moving on directly to the field training to completely hone your skills in medical ninjutsu. As surgeons, you guys are top-notch. But aside from putting you both in specific departments, I would also like to have you trained as field medics. Its good to be well-practiced as a surgeon and on the field so that you can be useful in any situation." She received mixed looks of shock and excitement. Sakura shrugged as she began walking away. "And who knows," she called back. "Maybe one of you will become the head of surgery once I leave!"

Later that night, Sakura was once again reading over Naomi's test, shaking her head. _'This girl is something else . . .'_ was the constant thought in her mind. When Sakura had asked her privately about using hair for the surgery, Naomi had initially thought she was in trouble. Once Sakura calmed her down and explained how the surgery was a success, Naomi was able to explain fully. Being a part of the body and containing DNA, hair was often used as a chakra connector in different villages. Sakura knew this, remembering her fight against Ino during the Chunin Exams. Because of this trait, Naomi thought that using hair to stitch organs—and skin—back together would make the healing process faster because the chakra would already be there. Also, she had figured it would be faster than stitching with a needle and thread because objects that held chakra could be easily manipulated by someone else's chakra, making the process much more efficient.

Sakura was excited to see how Naomi progressed. If being a surgical medic was not the right fit for Naomi, Sakura had other plans. She would not yet present the idea to the older woman, but Sakura had a feeling that Naomi would thrive as a researcher for the hospital.

* * *

Two days later, Sakura was woken just after 5 in the morning by an insistent pounding on her apartment door and someone yelling. Grumbling, Sakura climbed out of bed and walked to the door ("Shut up, I'm coming!"). Swinging the door open, she was presented with a frantic-looking Naomi and a disgruntled Sasuke behind her. Sakura glanced quickly at the man before giving her attention to the somewhat-owner of the hospital. "What the hell, you guys."

"The council called for a meeting!" Naomi wheezed. '_Had she been running or something?'_ Sakura wondered. "They want to discuss the training program for the hospital staff—the meeting is scheduled for 6:30!"

Sakura felt her stomach drop to the floor. "Are you kidding me?! Since when?" she demanded. She started running around the front room, gathering papers and notes. Naomi and Sasuke walked into the apartment.

"Lord Otokage received a notice this morning," Naomi said, wringing her hands. Sakura glanced at Sasuke, noticing that for once he was wearing his Kage robes, hat in his hand. "He was on his way here and saw me in one of the shops and asked if I'd known—I didn't know, Sakura!" Naomi was practically in hysterics now. Sakura ran out of the kitchen, a pile of papers in her arms. "I didn't receive a notice or anything, and I know you didn't, otherwise you would have been talking about it and you seemed so calm this week—"

"Naomi!" The woman jumped at being yelled at. She was given a serious look by Sakura. "All of my notes have dates on the top corner. Please do me a huge favor and organize them by date."

Sakura ran out of the front room and back to her bathroom. She wasn't positive, but Sakura was pretty sure that this was the fastest shower of her entire life. She ran back down the hallway in a towel, sprinting into her bedroom. Donning a bra and underwear Sakura looked through her closet for something to wear. She yelled out in frustration. "What the hell am I supposed to wear to this thing?" she shouted out her open bedroom door before going back into her closet. She had plenty of pants and tops that would match. But would it look better to dress nicely? She had one dress; it was nice enough. Or would they rather see her in her hospital getup? Sakura looked at the pile of dirty clothes in her room. Did she have any uniforms that didn't have dirt or blood stains on them?

She heard footsteps approach her bedroom door. Sakura pulled out the dress and held it up to her body. "Naomi, do you think—SHIT!" Sakura jumped behind her closet door, glaring at the figure in the doorway. "Sasuke, don't come in here!"

Ignoring her, Sasuke walked straight into the room and towards the closet. Glancing at the dress in her hands, Sasuke shook his head. "Too fancy. They'll probably think you're trying to seduce them," he mumbled, looking through her closet.

"I'm not dressed, get out of my room!"

Her former teammate rolled his eyes at her shouting. "I'm not going to ogle you at a time like this, Sakura." He pulled out a pair of tan pants and random top. Sakura just stared at him. "What?"

"Really? That shirt and those pants? Are you colorblind?" she commented. A vein throbbed on Sasuke's forehead.

"Really? You're being picky on limited time? Are you that vain?" he retorted. Forgetting her lack of coverage Sakura snorted in amusement, nudging him on the arm. He pulled out another outfit and threw it at her before walking out.

Sakura looked at the garments in her arms before putting them on. Looking at herself in the mirror, she couldn't complain: sleek black pants with a navy V-neck long sleeve top.

"SAKURA IT'S ALMOST 6 O' CLOCK!"

Sakura quickly put on a pair of patent black heals and grabbed a hair tie from her dresser before heading out of her room. As she was securing her hair into a clean bun she looked for Naomi, finding her picking up the most recent papers that Sakura had been working on. Sasuke was leaning against the wall, eyes closed and arms crossed. As Naomi was finishing up Sakura looked between the two. "Are we ready for this?"

Sasuke gave her a deadpan expression while Naomi gulped noticeably, a nervous twitch in her demeanor.

Less than ten minutes later the trio was walking into one of the meeting rooms in the hospital. The staff had been about to greet Sakura and Naomi, but upon seeing their expressions along with their Otokage involved every staff member refrained from approaching the group. Only Haru had been bold enough to give a questioning look. "If the Council of Elders enters this hospital, tell them to come to room 315!" she ordered without missing a stride. In Sakura's design plans for the hospital she had designated one conference room on every other floor. If it had not been for the Chunin having physicals that day, she would have kept the meeting on the first floor. But due all the chaos that was about to ensue in a couple short hours, she didn't want anything interrupting the meeting. Also, of all the meeting rooms this one was the most presentable. With a rectangular oak table, clean walls and floor tiles, and comfortable chairs, Sakura could only hope that the room would appease the Elders.

"Naomi, put my papers down and go announce to the staff that there is to be a meeting here, so all examinations are to be on the first two floors only," Sakura ordered. The co-head of the hospital nodded and ran out of the room. Sakura walked to the pile of notes and began sifting through them, pulling out the ones that would help her formulate a speech outlining her ideas for the training program. "Sasuke, go to the market down the road and grab a snack tray and case of water." She kept going through her notes, pulling out another paper.

A sigh. "You don't need to feed them."

Sakura looked up momentarily before shooting her eyes back down at her notes. "Food makes people happy. I need them to be happy." She pulled two more papers. "Now go do as I say or this hospital staff has no hope."

After another grumble of "they don't need food at this hour" the man left the room. Sakura glanced at the clock above the door: 6:11. At this point Sakura had pulled papers into two piles: one pile was of notes describing the structure of the training program and duration of different segments; the other pile had semi-detailed lesson plans Sakura planned to incorporate into the program, describing what practical skills would be taught, the theory concepts, on-the-floor training while being observed, and how she would split people into departments.

The next time Sakura glanced at the clock—6:19—Naomi and Sasuke had come back into the room at the same time. Sasuke had a tray of fruits and bagels along with a case of bottled water. Naomi was setting out papers in front of each chair. Sakura gave her a questioning look.

"Two packets for each Elder," the woman explained. "One giving a general outline of the meeting—I read through some of your notes while you were getting ready—and the other are the documents that will need to be signed for the program to begin." Sakura grabbed one of the sets and glanced through everything. The outline was decent; it gave the basic idea of each topic, but not giving many details so Sakura could propose her plan extemporaneously. The documents were very detailed, however. "I just typed up the outline, but the documents have been ready for a week," Naomi said, seeing Sakura's expression. "I didn't know when this meeting would take place, but had the papers ready so it would be less work when the time came to plan."

"Thank you, Naomi. You run things extremely well," Sakura complimented, causing the other woman to blush. Suddenly Sakura could sense Haru's chakra from the first floor spike and drop quickly three times—a warning call. Sasuke looked over at Sakura, a hard look in his eye. "They're here," she announced. Naomi immediately took the seat to the left of the table head—where Sakura would sit—while Sasuke took his position across from Naomi, putting on the straw hat to complete the Kage uniform.

Within seconds the Council of Elders were strolling into the room, a couple giving Sakura looks of disdain, another slightly surprised. The others held blank faces. Sakura waited for them all to be seated, watching as they glanced between the papers laid neatly before them and the refreshments in the center of the table.

"Good morning, everyone," she began. "Before I begin the proposal for a medical training program, I ask that you save all questions and concerns for the end." She looked at the faces before here: Naomi was nervous, Sasuke was indifferent, the council looked disgruntled. "Let's begin."

The first hour and a half was spent with Sakura going over the general purpose of the program, and then going into detail with certain lecture plans and practical experience. Different lectures would go over specific medical concepts that she felt was required for the staff to know in order for them to all be around the same level. Each week would be centered around a major concept; on Mondays Sakura would host three lectures throughout the day, giving staff members a chance to attend one at any point in the day and choose one based on their hospital shift. The next three days would be spent on practical training in the classroom with the staff in smaller class sizes. This would allow for Sakura to observe each person individually and answer any questions. Each member would be required to attend three of the practical periods. Friday and Saturday would be spent testing the concepts, either in a controlled situation or with a patient who was willing to help the staff learn. Konoha had been a teaching hospital, so Sakura already knew how such a teaching method would play out.

"So let me get this straight," one of the male Elders slowly started, "you plan to have this whole program done in—" he looked down at his own notes of the lecture "—41 weeks?" The rest of the council started talking amongst themselves. Sakura shushed them as politely as she could. The man who had spoken sat back in his chair and laced his fingers together, eyeing her. "Haruno, I understand that you trained under Lady Tsunade to become a medic. How long did your training last?"

Sakura thought for a moment. "About three years to be labeled one of the top medics of the village," she answered.

The man nodded. "Now tell me, how do you expect these staff members to be ready in such a short time when it took you—an excellent shinobi—three years?"

Now everyone was really talking. It took a full minute for Sasuke to snap at them to "be quiet and let her answer or I will remove you". Sakura placed her papers down and sat back in her chair. Crossing her legs, she focused her gaze on the man asking questions. "Let me explain this once, so please: anyone with the same concerns, listen up. When I started training with Tsunade, I was twelve years old. At that time I was not a very capable shinobi; I was very smart, did well with genjutsu, but I was very mediocre otherwise. I had no knowledge of medical ninjutsu; the most I knew about fixing an injury were the basics I learned at the Academy and whatever I learned from experience. Add that all up and it was very little knowledge. The majority of my training under Lady Hokage was learning components of the human body, how they functioned and correlated as a whole system. I was always exceptional at chakra control so learning medical ninjutsu did not take me very long—about three months for the basics. It was the knowledge I gained that has allowed me to become what I am." She paused, arranging her thoughts. "I have tested every single member of this hospital. I have a good idea of where every doctor and nurse stands as far as how much medical information they know. Of all the people on staff, the one with the least amount of medical knowledge is at the point I was at halfway through my training."

"But that still calls for a year and a half of training, by your standards," one woman stated.

"Actually, it would only be about another five months of training, by my standards." She was met with confused looks. "No one on staff is currently an active shinobi, meaning they are not going on missions. When I was being trained, I was taking part in missions, participating in the Chunin exams half way through, and being an assistant to the Hokage. My training was arranged around all of that. Since no one in this hospital is leaving for missions, they can be trained faster than I was." She shifted through her lecture outlines, glancing through them. "I based this training program around the ways Tsunade trained me. I know this staff can be up to par with medics in other villages in just over ten months."

"And what makes you think you can do all of this on top of running the hospital?" another man demanded, others mumbling as well.

"Because she is the best chance this village has to gaining a proper medical unit." The voice was strong and confident, silencing the room once more. Everyone's eyes turned to the speaker. Even Sakura was slightly surprised at the bold statement. Sitting tall in her seat, hands folded over the papers, Naomi had a firm look on her face as she gazed at the council. "I have been working with this woman for two months now, and I have seen first-hand what she is capable of. Not only that, but I know the ability of my staff members. They are all willing to learn; sheer determination will allow them to grow quickly and efficiently under Sakura's tutelage. Sakura Haruno is the best medic in all the nations; there is no denying this. We've been given the opportunity to have her stay with us indefinitely to train our doctors." Naomi's eyes narrowed. "To doubt this training program is to not only doubt one of the best kunoichi of our time, but to also doubt in the ability of our doctors here in Otogakure. We have survived through a very difficult first year; we will push ourselves to better this village, no matter what. Do not lose faith in us."

Ten minutes later Sakura was picking up the packets left behind after the council was excused from the meeting. In the meantime she helped herself to the fruit on the tray—they had barely eaten half of it. Naomi was chewing on a bagel while carefully inspecting each signed document to make sure none of the elders filled out their copy incorrectly.

"I never knew you were in training for three years," the woman commented lightly. "The council acts like that's such a long time, but I've heard that most medics spend at least five or six years training."

"Well, most are either training while taking on missions or they are training for a specific field, which typically takes longer."

Naomi nodded, setting aside another document. "Yeah, but still—to have done all that in only three years!" She smiled over at Sakura. "You must have been pretty determined to become a medic . . . why did you decide to do so?"

Sakura took her time in collecting the pile of papers and putting them in the trash, thinking of how to word her answer. "There was someone I wanted to save, and at the time I wasn't strong enough to do so." She could feel Sasuke's eyes on her, suddenly interested in the conversation.

"Oh," Naomi whispered, eyes wide. "Did you ever save them?"

Another careful pause as Sakura chewed on a pineapple chunk. "Well, no . . . not in the way I had intended to." She watched as Naomi handed the finished documents over to Sasuke to sign. It gave Sakura an excuse to discreetly study his expression. "But I think they're doing okay." Sasuke glanced up and met her stare. He held the contact for a few seconds before looking back down to continue signing papers. Sakura couldn't help but smile slightly to herself.

* * *

When everything was signed, Sakura just had the task of filing everything away in her office. Now that she had everyone's signatures and permission, she could finally start planning out the program officially. She had made copies and was heading over to the Otokage Tower for Sasuke to file away for his purposes; in case any council member deny having signed off on something, was his logic and reasoning. Honestly, Sakura couldn't argue that; the council in Konoha had tried doing the same thing in the past with other leaders.

After knocking, she entered his office hesitantly. His back faced her as he stood by the window, gazing out over the village. It was almost noon; the sun was starting to break through the storm clouds of the previous night, sending small specks of light onto the rooftops.

"I have the copies of the documents. Where do you want them?"

"On my desk is fine," he replied.

Sakura slowly walked over and placed the documents next to a pile of mission scrolls. After a moment of hesitation she took the last few steps and took a spot next to him, looking at the village below. It had only been a couple of days since the other construction requests were finally approved and already the several projects were being started. Now, instead of a village looking like it was barely holding on, Sakura looked out and saw a village that was growing and starting strong.

"I hear that a small gambling hall is being built on the southern end of the village," she mentioned lightly. "It'll help bring in attraction and money, the next closest one is in the center of the country."

A small grunt was all Sasuke gave to that bit of information. Of course he already knew this, having just recently signed the papers for it. He wasn't a fan of the pastime, but he couldn't complain if it brought in money to the village.

"You became a medic to save me," the man stated.

Sakura glanced at him from the corner of her eye. "Yes, I did." His eyes narrowed slightly in thought. Sakura's mouth turned up a little at the corners, thinking back to those younger years. "I wanted to learn how to stop or reverse the Body Transfer that Orochimaru was planning."

"He tried," Sasuke replied casually. "But I killed him." Sakura nodded once before looking out again at the village. A team of Genin was practicing running up a pole; working on chakra control, Sakura guessed.

"I'm glad he didn't take control of you."

Sasuke glanced over at the woman beside him. In all honesty he had been surprised to hear that he had some play in her reason to be a medic. On some level, he is why she became the most sought-after medic in the nations. Sasuke wasn't sure how to feel about that. Should he feel honored that she would dedicate so much time just to save him, or chastise her for wasting so much time on him?

As he turned his gaze back to the view of his village a beam of light broke through a cloud overhead and was reflected right into his eyes, momentarily blinding him. One look at his face had Sakura snickering.

"Blinded by my beauty?" she asked, clearly sarcastic. Sasuke rubbed at his eyes while attempting to flick her in the head.

"Shut up, woman."

As she laughed again, avoiding his hand and backing away and mentioning something about lunch, Sasuke held back a smirk. He did not feel honored or annoyed, he realized. Actually, he wasn't sure what he was feeling, knowing that she had worked so hard for him. The thought of it left a tugging sensation in his chest.

He declined her offer to go for lunch, glancing at the stacks of scrolls on his desk. She nodded in understanding before leaving. The young kage sat down and started going through the mission scrolls; he couldn't help but feel that the office was a little quiet and empty all of a sudden.


End file.
